Trying to activate new phone

I bought a Cricket phone from Walmart to add my dad and stepmom onto my account. Took it to the Cricket store where they added my parents to the account, took my money, but then said phone wouldn’t activate. Told me to take it back to Walmart and get another phone and bring it back. So I did. Same thing...wouldn’t activate. Told me to call customer service, so I did. FOUR TIMES. Every representative either hung up on me or told me the problem would be fixed if I would just power the phone down and then boot it back up. NOTHING WORKED and I still have a phone my dad can’t use but still being charged. I am not rude on the phone with the representatives. They all say they need to put me on hold to fix the problem and then they just disconnect. I don’t know what to do to get the phone activated since no one is willing to help. So incredibly frustrating.